The collapsed gangway at the Sapelo Island Visitors center is shown just after seven people died there. | Lewis M. Levine, AP
Published on October 20, 2025 at 4:10 pm
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It has been one year since hundreds of people gathered in Sapelo Island in Georgia for a cultural celebration of the Gullah Geechee community. That’s when tragedy struck at the visitors center dock.
Without warning, a gangway collapsed, and about 20 people waiting for a ferry to the island, about 70 miles south of Savannah, plunged into the water at the west end of Doboy Sound.
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Four of the seven who died Oct. 19 were from Jacksonville: Jacqueline Crews Carter, 75; Cynthia Gibbs, 74; Carlotta McIntosh, 93; and Isaiah Thomas, 79. Also killed were Charles Houston, 77, of Darien, Georgia; Queen Welch, 76, of Atlanta; and William Johnson Jr., 73, also of Atlanta.
Now Jacksonville City Council member Rahman Johnson is seeking the community’s help in choosing how to honor the group that has become known as The Sapelo 7.
Johnson envisions a commemorative plaque at Freedom Park in Arlington, which already hosts the first marker commemorating a Gullah Geechee community in Jacksonville.
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“Freedom Park, I thought, would be a fitting location to honor those souls that were lost as they were going to investigate and look at what Sapelo Island means to not only the Gullah Geechee tradition, but to American history,” Johnson said. “This monument — I have been working toward it for the better part of the year — this is just a few days past the one-year anniversary of that tragic accident, and I wanted to find a way to move from mourning to celebration, and celebrate those lives and also the beauty of the Gullah Geechee culture.”
Memory of the Sapelo tragedy
The Florida Legislature approved $521,855 in funding in 2019 for Freedom Park, with its Gullah Geechee remembrance, at McCormick and Fort Caroline Roads. Gullah Geechee are direct descendants of slaves who settled in the Coastal Lowlands, from North Carolina to North Florida. The single largest concentration is in Jacksonville, but Freedom Park is the city’s first public area to recognize their history
Johnson wants the park to remember those who died as they were learning more about their history. So he has posted four proposed messages that could be displayed on a plaque atop a boulder in Freedom Park by the end of this year, he said.
Johnson said he is asking people to read the four messages and rank the one that moves their spirit/
For example, the first proposal is entitled “The Eternal Witness” and says in part that ” … seven souls entered the waters of Sapelo, carrying the weight of heritage. They departed in tragedy, yet remain in eternity. Here in Freedom Park, Jacksonville remembers.”
Another proposal said that “… seven rose from Sapelo in sacrifice” on that day a year ago, their named “etched in time, are our covenant with history. Here, in Freedom Park, we vow to remember.”
People are asked how each of the four feels to them, ranking them from “powerful” or “poetic,” to “unsure.”
Johnson said he has received hundreds of rankings from people online, which he is thankful for. But he said he wants to get more community members to weigh in. So he is pushing for more responses, then the final choice will be made.
“I hoping that we will have this done by the end of the year, with some ceremony to not just draw attention to the beauty of Freedom Park, but also how we can commemorate those lives,” he said. “This will be supported by the Jacksonville Historical Society and the public library as part of their special collection.”
Johnson said there is some city funding set aside to help pay for the commemorative boulder and plaque. A final cost and design will be determined after the plaque’s message is selected.
The chosen text will appear on a brass plate atop a boulder, engraved with the names of Isaiah Thomas, Carlotta McIntosh, Jacqueline Crews Carter, Cynthia Alynn Gibbs, Queen Welch, William Lee Johnson Jr. and Charles League Houston.
A QR code on the plaque would link visitors to the Jacksonville Public Library’s Special Collection for a digital connection to more information on the Gullah Geechee and their heritage.
